Several days passed in the blink of an eye. Chu Qiguang continued to cultivate while using Hundred Refinement Ointment. At this point, he was already able to throw over a hundred consecutive audible punches.

However, given that he had to spend over thirty taels of silver on Hundred Refinement Ointment every day and cover Chen Gang, Qiao Zhi, and his own living expenses, his funds had dwindled to less than one thousand three hundred taels of silver.

Cultivating martial arts really is expensive.

At the same time, he began learning the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique from Qiao Zhi. He already possessed exceptional aptitude, and his learning abilities were enhanced by his status as a second-state Dao artist, so he was able to grasp things very quickly.

Over the past few days, he had also become much closer to Jin Fugui, Lu Ming, Qiu Wen, and Wang Cailiang. Outside of his daily cultivation, he spent some of his nights enjoying the nightlife with the four young men in order to further deepen their bond.

On one occasion, Jin Fugui even offered to introduce his sisters to Chu Qiguang, but was turned down.

As time passed, Chu Qiguang’s knowledge, abilities, power, and connections continued to grow.

***

That night, the sound of a dog barking echoed through the back alley, mixed with a few meows from Qiao Zhi. However, the barking was very fearful and urgent, while the meowing sounded like the composed taunts of a predator toying with its prey.

Chu Qiguang stepped into the back alley, where he saw two large yellow dogs pressed tightly into a corner. They stood upright on their hind legs, staring fearfully at Qiao Zhi, who was perched on top of the wall.

Qiao Zhi was casually licking his paw as he jeered, “I always knew dogs were stupid, but I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to try and attack me!”

The older of the two dogs was shielding its companion as it growled, “Filthy cat! You’re not going to get away with this! Our king is going to tear you to shreds!”

The younger dog bared its fangs and growled as well, but the moment Chu Qiguang stepped into the alley, both dogs dropped to all fours and fell silent.

Clearly, they were afraid of being exposed as fiends.

However, their eyes widened in shock when they saw the human begin speaking with the cat.

“These two are dog fiends?” Chu Qiguang asked.

“That’s right,” Qiao Zhi confirmed as he leapt down from the wall. “They tried to attack me.”

Chu Qiguang stroked Qiao Zhi’s fur as he asked, “Are they strong?”

“Not at all,” Qiao Zhi scoffed in disdain. “They have no martial arts cultivation base to speak of, so I presume they won’t have cultivated any Dao arts either.”

Just like humans, fiends could cultivate both martial arts and Dao arts. However due to differences in their physical structures, they had their own unique martial arts. Fiends like Qiao Zhi, who could instruct both humans and other fiends in martial arts, were extremely rare.

Some fiends were born with far superior physical constitutions than humans, such as tiger fiends and bear fiends. Even without martial arts, they could stand toe to toe against human martial arts masters. After cultivating fiendish martial arts, they would become even more formidable.

There were also some fiends who possessed special abilities that were essentially supernatural powers.

However, before a fiend in the wild could begin to cultivate, they had to awaken higher intelligence first.

As their intelligence gradually increased, they evolved from ordinary animals until they could begin to understand human speech. Most of the fiends serving Qiao Zhi were at this stage. Over time, both their physical prowess and intelligence would continue to improve until they also became capable of speech and cultivation.

These fiends that awakened after birth were known as acquired enlighteneds.

In contrast, the descendants of Dao Comprehension-state fiends had a chance of being born with higher intelligence, and some were even capable of taking human forms at birth. These were known as innate enlighteneds.

“That said, they do appear to be innate enlighteneds,” Qiao Zhi continued.

Chu Qiguang knew that the seven major fiend races in this world all had different traits. Among them, cat and dog fiends mostly lived among humans. They had relatively high chances of being born with higher intelligence, but were very unlikely to attain human forms. Individually, they were the weakest among the seven races, but they far outnumbered the other five races and were spread over the largest area.

“Are there many dog fiends in Azure Sun County?” Chu Qiguang asked, turning his gaze to the two dogs.

The dogs remained silent.

Qiao Zhi put on a menacing expression as he snapped, “He’s asking you a question!”

The two dogs exchanged a glance, but still refused to talk. Sharp claws extended from Qiao Zhi’s paw as he stepped toward them, but Chu Qiguang stopped him.

“It’s alright, Master Qiao. Let me talk to them,” Chu Qiguang said.

He turned back to the two dogs and threatened, “You’re still not going to talk? Do you want to be made into dog meat hotpot?”

“Are you a fiend as well?” the older dog asked suspiciously.

Given how close Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi appeared, the older dog automatically assumed that Chu Qiguang was a fiend in human form. After all, cooperation between humans and fiends was unacceptable, so that possibility was highly unlikely.

He has a human form, which means that he’s either already attained the Dao Comprehension state, or he’s an innate enlightened that was born with a human form, the older dog thought.

Chu Qiguang didn’t seem like a Dao Comprehension-state fiend, so the older dog was much more inclined to believe that he was an innate enlightened.

“You don’t need to know what I am,” Chu Qiguang replied in a mysterious manner. “Right now, I’m the one asking the questions.”

He could tell the two dogs were still wary, so he spent some time talking to them before fetching some meaty bones from the yard to feed them.

The dogs were starving, and they were finally willing to answer his questions as they feasted on the bones.

“My name is Old Tu, and this is my son, Little Tu,” the older dog introduced. “We look for food around these parts.”

“Do you normally get enough to eat?” Chu Qiguang asked.

“Even humans don’t get enough to eat nowadays, let alone dogs,” Little Tu replied as he wolfed down some meat. “I used to have four other siblings, but I’m the only one left now.”

Chu Qiguang wasn’t surprised to hear this. Cat and dog fiends enjoyed many advantages over their peers from living among humans, but times were tough. They also had to stay on guard against the Heavenly Master Religion and the Demon Vanquishing Department, so they were undoubtedly suffering.

“How about you two follow me from now on, and I’ll provide you with two meals every day?” Chu Qiguang offered.

A look of longing appeared on Little Tu’s face, but Old Tu immediately refused. “We’re already followers of our king, so we can’t follow you.”

“Who is this king of yours?” Chu Qiguang asked.

Through the descriptions provided by the two dogs, Chu Qiguang was able to gain a better understanding of the network of fiends in Azure Sun County.

The most common fiends in the county town were cat and dog fiends. They all had their own factions and claimed different territories.

Some of the more fortunate cat and dog fiends were able to catch the eye of wealthy clans and serve as house pets, while the less fortunate ones had to fend for themselves on the streets, surviving off rats, cockroaches, and food scraps.

Chu Qiguang asked them about the recent incident where the fisherman had been attacked at the docks. Apparently, the Daoist temple had already sent people to investigate. However, the culprit was a reclusive fiend with no subordinates, so the two dogs didn’t have any information on it either.

Chu Qiguang then asked about the recent corpse reanimation incident, and once again, the two dogs had no valuable information to offer.

Instead, they spoke about how they had to fight over the food scraps and leftovers thrown out by wealthy households, and how they had to act lame and injured in front of wealthy young masters and young mistresses in order to gain sympathy for food.

A sympathetic expression appeared on Chu Qiguang’s face as he listened to their stories of hardship, making it seem as though he truly felt concerned for them.